Bus Fleet Implements High-Power Inductive Charging

A 60-foot K11 all-battery bus from BYD, operated by the Antelope Valley Transit Authority, north of Los Angeles. The agency has 14 K11s in service or on order out of a planned total of 85 all-battery buses. BYD builds the all-electric vehicles in Lancaster.

Although 85 BYD buses have been ordered, “75 is the real big number,” he says, “because that’s when we become 100 percent green.”

The agency in northern Los Angeles County has logged about half a million all-electric service miles.

When all of the battery buses are received and in service, AVTA’s existing straight diesel and diesel-hybrid buses will be sold or given to other operators, Neshati says.

The agency has been successfully using 50 kW inductive units from WAVE to charge its early BYD buses at two locations.

This year, 11 new 250 kW units will support at least 35 of the agency’s 40- and 60-foot vehicles. AVTA also has nearly 90 conventional chargers, on a network that includes a 1.5 MW backup generator, which the agency says “can power the entire charging infrastructure in case of an emergency.”

The first three of the powerful new WAVE units are in the City of Lancaster’s transit center located in the Sgt. Steve Owen Memorial Park complex.

Three more are to be operational in mid-February at the City of Palmdale’s transit center.

Two are destined for the Lancaster Metrolink station and the last three for the South Valley Health Care Clinic – all to be completed this year, says Neshati.

Macy Neshati headed up heavy vehicle sales – buses and trucks – at BYD before taking over the top job at AVTA.

“In the development of this product, WAVE has solidified a product platform with scalability up to a megawatt to accommodate future applications that are even more demanding,” the manufacturer says.

Neshati notes that BYD has begun production of the 35 C10 commuter coaches, believed to be America’s first-ever such vehicles to be fully battery-powered. Deliveries of the 45-foot vehicles are expected to commence in March.

AVTA has meanwhile logged some 50,000 miles on one of its 60-foot battery buses, and 60,000 on another, and 100,000 and 140,000 miles on two of its early 40-footers.

Rich Piellisch, an NGT News contributing writer, has been covering the alt-fuels sector for more than 20 years.